California bans gay-to-straight therapy for teens

Sep. 30, 2012
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California Gov. Jerry Brown / Reed Saxon, AP

by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation that prohibits a form of therapy said to help minors transform from gay to straight, the Los Angeles Times reports officials said earlier today.

The state legislation was introduced by state Sen. Ted Lieu, a Democrat, who believes that conversion therapy, as it is called, can be dangerous because some patients have committed suicide or later experienced mental and physical anguish, according to the Times.

"Gov. Brown should be commended for protecting LGBT youth by ending this kind of quackery," Lieu told the Times. "Anyone who forces a child to try to change their sexual orientation must understand this is unacceptable."

The measure has been supported by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and other advocacy groups, but opposed by Republican lawmakers, who see it as an intrusion by the state into how parents should raise their children, the Times reports.

"In our view, it's an intrusion beyond what the government has done before," Matthew McReynolds, staff attorney for the conservative Pacific Justice Institute, which opposed the bill, told the Times. "The privacy concerns are fairly significant."